


could you tell me whats real?

by dontstraytoofar



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Hurt, also toni??? wins best gf award 2K18, cheryl needs love + is super protective, like EXTREME comfort, major spoilers for the musical episode!!!! heres ur warning now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 06:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14372874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontstraytoofar/pseuds/dontstraytoofar
Summary: question: if a girl kisses another girl with no witness, does that revelation make a sound?orcheryl calls toni after confronting her mother. spoilers for 2x18 (aka musical episode)





	could you tell me whats real?

**Author's Note:**

> hey so...that musical ep huh? sdksks look the only good thing abt it was the choni scenes and THATS the tea. anyways these two actually own my soul now so expect more fics from me for these two!!! enjoy xx
> 
> OH also based on the song "can i call you tonight?" by dayglow

 

-

 

 

 

 “I didn’t know who else to call.”

When Toni hears her voice over her phone, she exits her dressing room so fast it feels like she’s been struck by a bolt of lightning.

At first, Toni opens her mouth to ask: _Cheryl? Babe? Are you okay?_ Because her girlfriend’s voice shook over the phone, it trembled and wavered and Toni heard the tell-tale noise of Cheryl swallowing her tears.

Instead, what comes out of her mouth, Toni doesn’t realise yet, but it’s everything Cheryl wants to hear, _needs_ to hear. It’s the sentence that makes Cheryl stop breathing, it’s the words put together so intricately, yet said so simply and fiercely, that have Cheryl closing her eyes as if the weight and ache in her heart have finally _settled._

“I’ll be right there.”

There’s a moment, when Cheryl thinks the phones gone dead. But Toni stays on the line, speaking as she throws on her Serpent jacket over her costume for the musical that _I’m here Cher, talk to me about anything love, take your mind off it._ So Cheryl does, she sits in the middle of her room, still covered in pigs blood, and talks and talks and _talks_ and she speaks about how she’d see Toni in the movies at the Sister’s Orphanage.

How in one of them, they bought a cottage in these green hills and they looked like something plucked straight out of an Audrey Hepburn movie. And they kissed, and made honey, and Cheryl tears up over the phone at the memory.

And Toni closed her eyes, quelled her rage at Cheryl’s abuse, and instead smiled, saying with tears of her own that: “I mean yeah, we could rock 1950’s style babe.”

She tells Toni a lot of things, as she curls up into a ball on her carpeted floor, as Toni makes it outside Riverdale high, revving her bike. How Cheryl had thought she’d finally went crazy when she heard her voice calling out her name.

 “You’re not crazy. God, at all Cheryl.”

Toni sits on her bike, kicking it into gear as she speaks. She wipes under her eyes, and with a start, Cheryl hears how Toni laughs lightly, voice cracking with tears.

 “I think you’re the sanest person I’ve ever met.”

 “ _You’re not a deviant Cheryl. You’re sensational.”_

She wonders, Cheryl wonders where this fierceness of her girlfriend’s came from. The protectiveness and sheer need Toni has for Cheryl to _hear_ her, to believe what she says. She curls tighter in on herself, her body seeming to thrum with the need for affection.

But only from _her,_ only from Toni.

And God, she feels so _weak_ after thinking it. But she hears Toni’s quiet patient breathing over the phone, and she realises in that moment, there’s nothing _weak_ about her, about _them_. Together.

A moment passes, Cheryl goes to speak, goes to say _I need you._ But Toni, once again, has exactly what Cheryl needs.

 “I’ll be there soon, okay?”

That, in other words for Toni, means “ _I love you._ ”

 “Okay.” Cheryl answers, feeling a drop of blood drip from her eyelash.

And that, in other words for Cheryl, means “ _I love you too.”_

 

-

 

 

 

 “Oh my god, Cheryl...”

Toni, from the open window she climbs from, darts to the other girl so quickly it’s as if she finds this super human strength inside of her when it comes to Cheryl.

The other girl simply sits up, almost as if just realising she’s covered in _blood._ Red, thick, dripping blood, coating her pale skin. She goes to stutter out, she looks to Toni helplessly and she tries to speak but it feels like the blood is coating her throat now.

She starts crying again, she wonders if there’s a limit to crying. Cheryl feels like she’s already reached it. But she doesn’t make a sound as she cries, a lone tear just falls down her cheek, meeting her jaw and gliding down her neck.

Toni simply shrugs off her jacket, running to Cheryl’s bathroom and grabbing towels. Dampening them and running back to her girl’s side; she takes Cheryl’s hand first, looking to her with a worried look.

It’s instinct, how Toni tucks a stray piece of bloodied hair behind Cheryl’s ear, and for the first time that night, Cheryl let’s herself _breathe._ Drowning in the soft and warm gaze of Toni.

 “I’m here baby. I’m here.”

That’s all that Cheryl’s wanted, _love._

She finds it in Toni Topaz, Southside Serpent and girl who wipes a wet towel so lovingly to Cheryl’s ivory skin, who glides it up her arm, to her collarbones, to her jawline, who helps her up from the floor and turns the shower on.

Cheryl simply stands as Toni unzips her dress, lovingly gliding it down her body.

 “Is this okay?”

Cheryl answers Toni’s soft question with a small nod, stepping out of her soaked dress with her arms folded protectively over herself.

Toni doesn’t ask Cheryl what happened, she simply strips with her and lovingly washes her hair under the warm spray of water. And it feels like something new, Cheryl thinks, she feels, for the first time in a long time; safe.

The blood falls off her skin, swirling down into the drain, and it feels like some poetic symbol. That Toni is the one washing the horror, the bloodshed, away from Cheryl’s life.

 “Cheryl?”

The red haired girl opens her eyes, not even realising she closed them as Toni’s hands ran through her hair.

And Toni is looking to her, so soft and unguarded and _worried._ Cheryl moves closer, their height difference forcing Toni to look up. They’re a breath away, warm and soft and naked as water runs down their bodies.

When Cheryl hugs her, close and tight and fiercely, their stomachs and breasts touch in this way that makes Toni lose her breath. But she isn’t focusing on that, she’s focusing on how their bodies just _fit,_ how Cheryl lets her hand fist Toni’s soaking hair, like an anchor.

Cheryl squeezes her eyes shut, buries her face into Toni’s warm neck, and Toni holds her back, pouring all the love, everything Cheryl deserves, into her touch.

 “I…” Cheryl starts to speak, face still pressed into Toni’s neck. “I didn’t kill anyone, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Toni frowns, because well, _no,_ that wasn’t what she was thinking at all.

 “Cher, I wasn’t thinking that. More like I thought that was _your_ blood, like your mom finally cracked and hurt you.”

Cheryl pulls back, frowning, looking to Toni’s deep eyes and it’s like her chest starts to labour, with this _revelation._

“You…you didn’t assume the worst.”

Toni smiles lightly, a little confused, shaking her head. “Why would I?”

Cheryl doesn’t answer, she just hugs her girlfriend again. Because those words mean so much, they hold so much _weight,_ but Cheryl can’t convey that, so she hugs Toni tighter; presses her face into her neck, breathing in.

(She hopes the water washes away her tears.)

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

 “You’re gonna steal the show TT.”

Toni smiles to Cheryl through her vanity mirror as she applies eyeliner, watching how Cheryl leans on her dressing room door; running her eyes up and down the other girl’s body. They haven’t talked about the blood, they held each other and got dressed and Cheryl kissed her like Toni held the last breath of oxygen left on earth.

Toni rolls her eyes, smiling as Cheryl walks into the room, the clack of her heels echoing. “I thought only the cast members were allowed back stage.”

Cheryl runs her fingers through a stray pink feather boa, flicking it as she makes her way over to her girlfriend, sitting in the chair opposite. “Oh ouch, rubbing it in are you? Don’t forget, I’m the rightful star of this show.”

Toni smiles at her girlfriend’s light teasing, (which isn’t really teasing, Cheryl sounds half serious half joking) as she gets up and simply sits in Cheryl’s lap. It takes the red haired girl by surprise, but makes her smile when Toni wraps her arms around her neck. And Cheryl lets her arms wrap around Toni’s waist, holding tight and pulling her closer; heart seeming to quiet down at how _easy_ it is to be like this with Toni.

 “I’m pretty sure tradition calls for a good luck kiss, am I wrong?”

They’re a breath away, and Cheryl smiles, whispering against Toni’s lips.

 “Not at all.”

To Toni, Cheryl always, _always_ tastes like cherries and mint. Or sunshine. Or something in between.

To Cheryl, Toni tastes like vanilla and something entirely _Toni._

Like star dust and home.

 

 

 

-

 

 

 

When Midge’s body is put on display, strung up and bloody, Cheryl screams; and the only thing on her mind is _Toni._

She pushes past the panicked crowd, amongst the screaming and shouting and bodies elbowing the other, but Cheryl sees a flash of pink and brown hair among the crowd, and her heart settles lightly.

 “Toni!”

She yells over the rushed bodies, and almost in slow motion, does Toni turn around, relief in her own eyes as she finds Cheryl amongst the crowd. They rush to the other, barging through bodies and Cheryl glaring an icy stare at anyone who _dares_ get in her way.

When they make it to the other, Toni grabs to her so fiercely, hugging her tight, that Cheryl feels like they’ll become one. And Cheryl wraps her arms around Toni’s waist, feeling how the smaller girl wraps her arms around her neck and almost sinks into the hold.

 “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

It’s Cheryl who speaks first, surprising them both, Toni leans back slightly, smiling and shaking herself out of her worry. “Y-Yeah, I’m okay. Are you?”

Cheryl breathes a sigh of relief, nodding and saying softly. “I’m fine. I just-“

When she looks behind Toni, to Midge’s body, Cheryl feels her body shake.

 “Cher? Hey it’s okay, don’t look at it. Baby, focus on me okay?”

Cheryl closes her eyes, listens to Toni’s voice, because it’s Jason all over again, and it’s the blood and the horror she wanted _gone_ from her life. And it’s death and more destruction and she tries to listen to Toni’s voice, let it melt all over her.

She opens her eyes, and for the first time, the horror in her life is the second thing she sees.

As she sees Toni, before all the bloodshed. Toni Topaz, holding her face in her hands so softly, eyes warm and loving.

They grab each others hands, clasped tight, like the day escaping the Sister’s, and _run._

(Their connection never severing.)

 

-


End file.
